Smith v. County of Santa Clara

MEMORANDUM **

Simon Peter Smith, a detainee in the Santa Clara County jail, appeals from the district court’s order dismissing his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging that he was denied access to the courts because the law library available to him is inadequate. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review de novo dismissals under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A for failure to state a claim, Resnick v. Hayes, 213 F.3d 443, 447 (9th Cir.2000), and we affirm.

The district court properly dismissed this action because Smith has access to court-appointed counsel. See United States v. Wilson, 690 F.2d 1267, 1272 (9th Cir.1982) (the offer of court-appointed counsel satisfies the Fifth Amendment obligation to provide meaningful access to the courts, even where detainee is denied pretrial access to a law library); Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343, 350-51 , 116 S.Ct. 2174 , 135 L.Ed.2d 606 (1996) (prisoners have no per se right to a law library).

To the extent Smith contends that his court-appointed counsel is inadequate, he must raise this issue in his ongoing criminal proceedings, not in a civil rights complaint in federal court. See Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 44-46 , 91 S.Ct. 746 , 27…